There was a moment of shock, realizing the person wasn’t the hired killer I had expected, but someone I used to call my friend. The slight hesitation allowed her a chance to slam her fist into my cheek, causing me to stumble away from her.
“Hanna,” I breathed out her name.
“Don’t say my name, traitor!” Blonde hair whipped around as she swung to me, her foot ramming into my stomach, doubling me over. “You are on their side now! How could you? You fae lover.”
In our world, it was a slur, an insult worse than any other. Now I realized how brainwashed they had us. I would wear the title with honor now.
Ire shot up my back, spreading my shoulders. Snarling, I lurched for her, ramming into her like a train, causing her to slip. My knuckles slammed into her temple, almost dropping her to the stone. She regained her ground, her lip rising as she bounced back for me. My hand cracked across her cheek, pain zinging up my arm as it crushed over the bone.
She let out a wail, both of us falling back before we lunged for each other again.
As it had been with Aron, Hanna and I knew each other’s moves. We were taught together, fought together, were pitted against each other.
She darted for me, and I jumped to the side, smashing my boot into her ribs. Tumbling to the ground, she rolled over and stood back up. Hanna had always been a good fighter. Quick. But I was faster. Before she could fully get to her feet, my fist connected with her throat, her head whipping back. Gagging and coughing, she collapsed into the wall, trying to recapture her breath.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” I put my hands up, my body still crouched, ready to defend myself if I needed to.
“Shut up,” she croaked, her voice struggling to make it out of her throat. “Don’t talk to me like we’re friends.”
“Hanna.” She was the one person besides Caden I considered a true friend. “You don’t know the full truth. Istvan is lying to you. What you think—”
“Caden was right. You have been brainwashed.” She snarled, leaping for me. “You are nothing but a fae puppet!”
Moving faster than she could react, my arm struck out like a whip, dropping her. Her spine cracked against the cobble, knocking the wind out of her. She gulped for air as I pressed my boot on her chest, warning her to stay down.
“Like I said: I don’t want to hurt you.” I leaned over her. “But you know I can.”
Her eyes went wide, sliding over my shoulder. I had been too focused on her to notice.
Rookie mistake.
My spine stiffened, feeling a presence when a muzzle of a gun pressed into the base of my neck.
“Release her now.” A man’s voice spoke into my ear, a hand latching on to my hip to keep me from spinning around.
It was instant. A reaction deep in my heart. My lids shut briefly, grief billowing in my soul like a storm, frozen in pain and sorrow. His voice was as familiar to me as my own. His smell, his touch, the feel of him near me.
“Caden.” My voice came out soft, tainted with grief.
“I said let her go.” He gripped me tighter, pressing the gun harder into my head as if my saying his name stirred hatred in him.
Dropping my boot from Hanna, she climbed up to her feet, hacking and spitting, her lids narrowed on me with disgust.
“Go tell Father we have her,” Caden ordered her.
“Wow, Istvan is here? I feel special,” I mocked.
Hanna glared at me.
“That’s an order, private.” Caden ignored me, speaking to Hanna. “Go!”
Hanna dipped her head, giving me one last scowl before darting down the passage.
“She’s already in the field?” I watched her turn the corner. “My class wasn’t graduating for another year.”
“Yeah, well, we’ve had to accelerate the program. Everyone capable of fighting is now on the field,” he hissed into my ear. Capable of fighting and able to fight fae were two different things. I knew Istvan didn’t care if they weren’t ready. He needed bodies, which was a sacrifice he was willing to make.
“She’s not ready. None of you are,” I said truthfully. They would all die. They weren’t prepared for what really was out here.
“Father sees the threat is bigger than we first thought... because of you.”
“Then maybe you should be thanking me? At least a round of drinks on the house?”
His fingers pinched into my hip harder; a small, frustrated groan bubbled in his throat. I knew that sound. It was when he was irritated with me, but at the same time, he wanted to laugh at my crazy shenanigans. The two sides of him at war.
“Brex,” he muttered, torment in his voice. His head tipped into the back of mine, and he took a deep breath of my hair, sighing again. Drawing me into him, he pressed our bodies together. For one moment, it was like we were back in the place where it was just us. No fae side or human side. No right or wrong. Best friends. Two people secretly in love with each other. Everything about him was so familiar. He was like an old sweater I held on to because it was so comfortable, taking me back to a time I was innocent. Happy. A life when everything was simple, and we were each other’s world. Children who couldn’t imagine their bond would ever change or break.
“Don’t do this, Caden,” I whispered. “Please. You aren’t like him. You aren’t your father.”
It was as if I electrocuted him. The boy I knew and loved dropped away; the man his father was trying to create stepped in. He jerked back, his form stiffening, the gun shoved roughly at my temple.
“Shut the fuck up, traitor.” Caden’s tone was icy and aloof. “You know nothing about me.”
“I know you better than anyone.”
“The girl I used to know knew everything about me. The one I trusted and loved,” he seethed, emotion slipping through his teeth. Most might not catch it, but I knew all his tells. The way his cheek twitched when he was so pissed he couldn’t speak. The way his voice sounded when he was happy, sad, annoyed, and turned on.
He cleared his throat. “But that girl is gone,” he said coolly. “To me, she died the day she hopped on the back of the fae’s bike. Became a traitor.”
“It’s not so simple,” I replied. “You don’t know the whole truth. Your dad—”
“I said shut up!” His finger pressed firmer on the trigger, making my body stiffen. He shoved me forward. “Move.”
“No, I don’t think she will.” A voice spoke from the other end of the alley, the charm in his voice twining around us like vines, twitching my lips in a smile. “I’d let her go if I were you.”
Caden wrenched both of us around to the intruder, keeping me locked in his hold, the gun to my temple.
“Two can play this game, right?” Ash’s green eyes glinted, stepping from the shadows.
Caden’s muscles tightened, but it wasn’t the gorgeous tree fairy who made him react. It was the hostage Ash had at gunpoint in front of him, his hand over her mouth.
Hanna’s eyes were wide with fear, her body trembling. HDF trainees were all ego and pompousness, bragging about how they’d kill fae like rabid animals. But if they were actually face to face with the fae, most would freeze up. We weren’t trained to consider or fight fae glamour, probably because we had no defense for it. They used it as propaganda, turning the fae into even more soulless monsters and humans the helpless victims.